Private Landlords Will Need To Be Much More Vigilant if Proposals Go Ahead

Ben I have seen MUCH worse than that! In my opinion landlords will be reluctant to use documents provided by a local authority "scheme" than they are to use one provided by a landlords for landlords organisation. Many universities try to force landlords to use their AST's and landlords do not like it. I saw one that was soled to landlord letting to students and it was an Assured not an Assured Shorthold and many of the terms were so squffed to the tenant that is was rediculous. I was at a CRISIS meeting when they were first discussing these agencies (I wonder if you were there that day?) I made the point then that there are many many services that a local authority could offer through this type of scheme and some that they should never get involved in because they cross the line.

Mary if I get that managers job you can rest assured I shall be crossing that line with gusto and gay abandon. I dont just want an operational social lettings agency I want one that everyone turns to as THE model for how it should be done.

I wasnt at that meeting but I attended 1 a month back at the CIH where people already running them were sharing expereinces. All agreed they dont work when council's think like councils traditionally do. You have to look at things from the PRS perspective

Good luck Ben

I genuinely wish you every success and I hope that you do get the job because I think that you will set up a good modle. BUT looking at things from the PRS persepective must include realising that landlords like to feel in control of their lettings and part of that is to produce an AST that they feel comfortable using because they have provided it themselves. I know many landlords who use agents, sometimes for let only and sometimes for full management but they always give them the AST tha they want used. It will be interesting to see if you can gain their confidence enough for them to use one that you provide.

I am a big supporter of local authority bond schemes, mainly becuase the staff who run them give the tenants so much support but recently landlords are telling me that they wont use them because they are "dumping" hard to house tenants in their properties and causing problems with neighbours. I think that the coming changes will make landlords even more suspicious and this will not help schemes like yours - a pity

Cheers both.

Mary those are the challenges I face even if I am just part of the team and not guiding it. I have no problem putting a tenancy agreement together with our local landlords. I wouldnt impose one on them at all. My approach would be to sit down with as mnay as I could and ask "What do you need in this that would work for you?" and then bring my expertise to bear in advising the clauses that may or may not work and what the problems could be in practice.

True collaboration between what the council have to offer and what the PRS need.

I have just received an email from the Guardian who want me to start writing monthly for their Housng network on how it is developing, the ups and downs etc so you can follow it as a work in progress.

I think if a PRS landlord is working with the council there will be an element of 'Hard to House' tenants in there but we should be working closely with our landlords on them, not just saying "Its your problem now" That is what has been going on and we wont last long if that continues. The trouble is the traditional council mindset is not to get involved post sign-up, seeing that as the landlord's risk. Like I said earlier a lot has to change before it all gels together but if I didnt honestly think it was achievable I wouldnt bother

Ben I know you realise what you are taking on, probably more than the landlords do but do you intend to have people helping and tracking benefit claims and rent payments because these are the two areas that I see as high risk once we have universal credit. It is not yet clear who will pay the tenant, likely to be DWP I am told, but as you know many people have no financial skills and asking them to prioritise their spending is going to be a real challenge for us all. With the right support, including Credit Unions, who I am working with at the moment to get everything in place, we can make it work but there is no doubt that there will be tears before bedtime for many landlords. In that environment I think you will be able to ride in on your white charger and actually be seen as a real benefit to many landlords.

The problem which made me write this blog is ASB and again if you have the right people in place you may well be seen as a way of avoiding the issues that landlord will no doubt continue to face if they try to go it alone.

Well done with the Guardian article I look forward to following your progress. I expect you will charge me to speak to you when we do eventually meet hahahahaha

Absolutely Mary. the cornerstone of all this has to be open-ness about HB claims and where things are at all the way through. Hiding behind Data protection is not an option. And I know that fighting HB themsleves is going to be the biggest challenge there. Believe it or not I have environmental health asking me to give them HB info because HB wont share information with them and we have an HB guy in our team. This is the madness of so much council work. People outside see us as 'The council' a unified whole but thats not how ti works on the inside where many departments dont even share information with each other. Trying to get info out of social services, even when we are working on the same client is like trying to get inner sanctum secrets out of the Freemasons haha.

2 years ago when I came back into front line work from 8 years as a self employed trainer I noticed that we were placing people with criminal records with cooperative landlords. i pointed out to the powers that be the problem with landlord's insurance policies being invalidated by tenant's with criminal convictions. This caused a stir and questions were asked about how we should go about this, on the one had we were feeding ex offender clients to our landlords but data protection prohibited us telling them about the tenant's convictions - the legal responsibility under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act being on the tenants to tell the landlords. The decision was to pretend it doesnt exist and hope the awkward question will go away.

These are the kinds of things that have to be faced square on. We are bound by data protection but I dont think council's should be simply hiding behind it but finding a way around it. Its a knee jerk thing in many cases and tenants often couldnt give a toss themselves.

In my vision of a social lettings agency I wouldnt want any of our landlords to be on their own with an ASB tenant. That is the kind of service and expertise council's can provide and we should be there on those. Thats the kind of thing I mean when I say we have to offer loads. We may not have grants available for much anymore but we have the onboard skills for that kind of stuff. PRS landlords arent prepared for anything like that but we have had decades in that sphere and that experoience and skills sets should be made available outside of the Town Hall

The Escrow accounts with credit unions is what I have been banging on about for ages as a way of inculcating a bit of confidence, well done in getting involved. I would also like to see financial education built in somewhere in the new system too where appropriate, again this is what the council can bring to the party but we need landlords to trust us and we need to change council thinking so that people can break away from old patterns and meet in the middle.

Ben I am only allowed one thumbs up on your post but trust me I would give you a dozen. Very well said. I have a really beautiful high end flat that I could offer you if you would only come and work in the Midlands PLEASE! Frazzy would love it I promise.

I am just coming to the end of an 18 month project where a team of us have worked on a module to put into the national curriculum for 14-16 years olds to educate them about how to handle their finances and their future housing option, including obligations and rights under an AST.The project is part of the work of Homestamp (see Homestamp.com) and has been worked on by local authority officers and me to ensure that all areas are covered. I would be happy to share the module with you once it is finished if you think it might be something that you can use. In reality it can be adapted for any age group where the information is needed.

I knew that you were a fan of Credit Unions and this is something that I am working on with the Homestamp group and my NLA colleague who is very involved with them in her day job. There are so many spin offs apart from ring fencing the rent. 28 days notice if the tenant cancells payment or changes the payment to another landlord to name but one. No more worries about abandonment and right to possession and not to mention rent arrears. I really believe that this is going to make a big difference to landlords and also be financially inclusive to tenants who up to now have been excluded because of their lack of financial awareness and management skills.

Just think what you and I could achieve working together Ben - and we would have some great barnies on the way too hahahaha.

I may well be drawing on Homestamp if I get the new job. It ticks so many of the boxes that need ticking to correct what is missing from the picture.

Cant see us moving to the Midlands though, but I like Brum. In fact I am there all this weekend as Frazzy is at a travel conference

So where is the campaign to highlight the solutions already in place to help. Sounds like a fantastic scheme but a costly one for councils more interested in their bottom line than housing vulnerable families.
Shelter - in Why so quiet?!